It's a....

We are thrilled to announce that a little boy will be joining our family come early July. I enjoy feeling tons of movement from this baby but now that I know that it's my new son stretching, I am even more excited.

A couple weeks ago, we gathered with our family for a Gender Reveal Party. Our home was filled with decorations saying "What will the little honey bee?" The party was complete with my mother's creation of a double stroller made out of donuts. We were all excited to find out the gender, my mom even mentioned that she forgot why we were gathering.

The reveal happened through a board game called Dixit. Dixit is a Spiel des Jahres winning, wholesome family party game filled with different pictures. Side thought, Patrick and I love board games! So, Patrick started the game as the "active player" and his clue was 'Siblings.' I was "active player" next and my clue was 'Life.' Everyone knew that the gender was going to be revealed sometime during the game. My sister was at the edge of her seat with our first two clues. The game continued with our family members revealing clues when they were the active players. We encouraged each person to try and stick with baby themes. The turn came back to Patrick. His next clue was "Reaction to if it's a boy." Everyone began scouting for the perfect card to lay. My clue, "Reaction to if it's a girl" was next. Then to wrap up the game for the final clue we said, "It's a...." Everyone then was encouraged to lay down a picture and to say the gender they think the baby is with that card. We went one by one saying aloud what the gender is. With 3 for girl, 2 for boy, 1 for happy it's healthy and 1 for it looks like me! Patrick and I each held out an envelope. We opened the card and said "It's a boy!" We were all very excited. I was more in shock and disbelief. I was really thinking that the baby was going to be a girl. Now time to think of life with a boy! Help me please!!!

Planning any kind of party is very fun. The evening before I stepped into Party City to see what fun accents and decorations they had. I found plates, napkins and balloons. These items were not needed, but they did make the celebration a bit more fun! Take time in your life to celebrate the little things. Even if the little things are common or overrated. In the end it's spending time with family and creating memories together that really matter.

Games and more Games

Patrick and I have recently embraced the fact that we are and will always be a gaming couple. I am not talking about video games, D&D or monopoly. I am talking about Spiel des Jahres games. Games that require creativity and  strategy. Below is a list and my thoughts/description of each game.

Settlers of Catan
Settlers of Catan is a longer game 1-2 hours. This game is great when learning about trade and the economy. I have heard of students playing this game in a business classes. In Catan, you want to expand your Settlements, Cities and Roads to gain access to more resources. Resources in this game include Wood, Brick, Wheat, Ore and Sheep. Resources in this game allow you to build settlements, cities and roads. You compete with the other players for resources and points. The game has other components that help aid and hinder in expanding your settlements, cities and roads.

The Cities and Knights expansion adds more rules and more strategy to the original Settlers of Catan game. I love this expansion!!!! During this expansion, the normal play of Catan happens in addition to protecting Catan from the Barbarians and collecting Commodity Cards. Cities in this game produce their own resources called Commodities.


I have also played Settlers of Catan with the expansions Cities and Knights, Seafarrers and aspects from Traders and Barbarians. Mixing all the expansions together is very fun, especially when everyone know how to play.

This game requires at least 3 players.

Carcassonne

Carcassone was introduced to me one weekend while visiting Patrick at TIU. I enjoyed the game so much that Patrick bought it as a gift for me for Christmas. This game is never the same. Each time I play I use different strategies depending on the other players and the layout of the game. The point of this game is to have the most points at the end, when the tiles run out. You get points when you finish building roads, cities and cloisters. On your turn, you pick a tile and place it on the board. You need to match up the city, road or farmland to a piece already laid. You can choose to claim anything on that tile, if it's not already claimed. You claim tiles with Meoples, colored people pieces. This is a fast pace game. If you are playing with people that know the rules, a game can take 20 minutes.

We have recently bought the expansions Rivers and Cities and Cathedrals. The River expansion creates a barrier in the begining of the game while placing tiles. The Cities and Cathedrals expansion creates more points to gain while completing cities and roads.

You can play this game with 2 people!!!! Pat and I play this game very often. We have learned how to be civil while playing. We have also learned that placing tiles that help the other person makes for a more relaxful evening after the game is done.

Ticket to Ride (we sadly don't own this one)
Ticket to Ride requires strategy but not as much as Settlers of Catan. The board is the same each game. The variations come with Tickets that need to be completed. Tickets are destinations from cities in the USA, that when completed give you extra points.  At the beginning of the game, everyone chooses at least 2 of 3 tickets. The rest of the game is trying to complete the tickets by claiming routes between cities. In oder to claim a route, a set number of train cards is needed. The board of this game is of the Unitied States with cities connected by colored train routes. A average game length is 1 1/2 hours.

Can be played with 2 people but is more fun with at least 3.

Last Night on Earth
Last Night on Earth is a zombie board game which I played for the first time 2 weeks ago. This game has different senarios/game variations to choose from. Each senario has two teams, the zombies and the heros/humans. The senarios require team work and strategy in order to complete the designated task before the sun rises.

Can be played with 2 people.



Highly Recommended Games from Patrick
Dominion
Munchkins

Games that I would love to Purchase
Killer Bunnies
Ticket to Ride
Cities and Knights, Settlers of Catan expansion

We enjoy learning new games and sharing our love of games with others. If you have any suggestions or games that we should try, let us know!!!!